The blog

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Don't get me wrong, I do sometimes contemplate playing games like Uncharted and Halo, these are experiences I am missing out on not currently owning any Consoles. But I can live with that, playing games on PC like, Cities, Skylines, Skyrim with all the amazing Mods, and hell, Eurotruck Simulator. I mean who doesn't want to spend a few hours driving across Europe with 1000s of other players in the EU truck MP Mod?

How could you not think this is cool?

Its the closed platform nature of consoles that bug me, theres limited freedom, with many PC games there are opportunity for players to change things, mod things create entirely new experiences or just fix things that the developers didn't have the time to fix.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/searchresults/?src_cat=95

Look at Skyrims nexus mod page on bug fix's, 100s of small little tweaks and fixs that console gamers will simply miss out on. Player hosted servers is another big one, there are a few games that allow players to rent there own servers like a few of the Battlefield titles, but even this is closed and locked a little by EA who make you pay them, and not your server host of choice, and completerly rule out you running your own server from home.

100s of steam games made on the source engine make it very easy to quickly set up your own MP server for your friends/ clan to play in. And while individual games on console do allow you to go into private MP sessions (GTA online as an example) many do not, MAG on PS3 for example had many community's/ different clans spawn up and want to organise battles against each other however there was no actual system in place to do that,

The community on MAG did there best with what they had, simply Joining the Matchmaking Q for gamemodes at the same time in the hope of getting pitted against each other, many times it failed and that would result in the large groups backing out of games effecting other players who just wanted to play the game.

Had MAG been released on PC maybe things would have been different, maybe it would not, because actually MAG would probably have been like Planetside 2 which is also pretty closed off, with no mod support on PC. (I will also note, if they announce MAG 2 will prob buy a console for that :P)

If you go over to the /r/pcmasterrace subreddit or go to any PC based community one of the first things people will tell you is ahh PC has 60 FPS. Well yes you can get games to run at 60FPS if you so wish, you don't have to, Personally I do not, I am quite happy to play a game at 30~ FPS, as many of the games I play do run at as I have a medium spec computer. I will likely upgrade soon, just waiting on a new generation of hardware to come around.

But, its your choice, Open up a graphics options menu, and you will be dumpstruck at all the different options, terminology, what are all these different types of Anti Aliasing, what does it all mean, a quick google, or read of a tweak guide will allow you to get a game running how you want it to run.

Want all the high res textures, but the game run a bit choppier, 30FPS? So be it. Prefer a smooth 60FPS experience, sure you can probably achieve that by turning some settings down. And if you find it increasingly difficult to run the latest games well, then overclock that CPU, stick in some more ram, spend as little or as much money as you want, you get non of that freedom with a console, I don't see why developers cannot at least give a few graphics pre set options so you can choose between high res textures and a smoother framerate in console games.

Its cheaper on PC. It really is. Steam summer sales just gone, 1000s of games discounted by as much as 90% games only 1 year old for 50% off, games are usually £10~ cheaper on PC anyway at launch. You don't have to buy into the latest games, if your PCs not up to scratch or you simply can not afford a new title, theres a huge catalougue of older and free to play games with 1000s of people playing, Team fortress 2 and Fistful of frags to name a few FPSs

FPSs not your thing? How about some Neverwinter, http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter free to play and it will run on pretty low end computers.

Backwards compatibility

I laugh at all the hype and aww surrounding Microsofts backwards compatibility announcement, you know what I played last week, Jurassic park Operation Genesis, how did it run? Well apart from having to manually edit a config file to get it to run @ 1920*1080 it ran perfectly. It was also released on PS2 and Xbox, can I play it on either of the 2 newer consoles (PS4, XB1) NO! Of course I can't, with a PC you can pretty much play anything you ever want from any year bar a few compatibility issues that sometimes crop up (which are often fixed with community patches,)

Loads of fun to be had in older titles.

http://www.gog.com/game/rayman_2_the_great_escape

Fancy some old school rayman without having to go and source an older console, Sure just head over to GOG, 1000s of old games, all guaranteed to work on your computer, if they don't, well you get your money back, thats the way the cool people over at gog operate,

Could this be the last console cycle.

I strongly believe this will be the last traditional console cycle, Streaming is coming, I have said this ever since Onlive came around, Remember onlive? Well yer there not around anymore, maybe they where too early, but acquired by Sony who are launching there own streaming service PS Now.

There is no Reason at all Sony could not just release a PC client for me to Stream PS3 and 4 titles too, other than it would lead to a drop in hardware sales for Sony, that has got to be the only reason, they are worried that being able to play games without a Sony device would hurt hardware sales, but personally I am not going to buy some Sony hardware anyway. I just wanna play the games and I would subscribe or rent games with this service on PC, so come on Sony, give us access!

The service is still in testing and not available yet in Europe, but I strongly believe services like this will be massive in the future, would be cool to see someone like Valve jump in with something similar, because moving the processing away from your home computer to server farms, just makes sense, cloud computing FTW! Bring it on.

Thursday, 4 June 2015

Been playing Eurotruck Simulator of late, Saw a post on reddit about its multiplayer mod and gave it a go, How had I not seen it before?? Amazingly fun, great community, the truckers on ETS MP take it very seriously :P Might stream some next week if you follow me on Twitch

Been playing cities Skylines on and off, finally got round to making a youtube video, which I should have up later this evening. Cities recently got an update adding European style buildings and Tunnels, something the Community have been asking for for a while, nice of the Developers to put it in so fast, really looking forward to future updates as its the best City sim we have had in, 5 ish years, after the disaster that was Sim city V.

Replaying GTAV on PC, I think I have almost completed it again, I am setting up the Union depository mission at the moment pretty sure thats almost the end of the game. Really not impressed with GTA Vs multiplayer its fun for a while, but I just don't have any desire to play it.

Read that there was a performance update for train fever, the Developers of that game have been pretty poor at engaging with the community, not posting anything on there own forums or websites in weeks. I might try it out to see if the update has made it any better, the game is good, its just plagued with these performance issues.

We have followed many discussions about the future of Train Fever. Some players even suspected that Train Fever is dead and won’t be improved anymore. Let us clarify here that there will be additional game updates for sure. However let us also state that a part of our resources is needed for planning and preparing the future of Urban Games.

Quote from Urban games the developers.

It really sounds to me like they are not going to be releasing much more for the game, maybe it did not sell as much as they had hoped, which is a shame there have been few transport sims I have enjoyed since Transport tycoon / Openttd.

Saturday, 21 February 2015

I have a part time job working nights in a supermarket, its not so bad, 2 nights a week, 10 hour shifts with night rate premium is pretty nice with pretty flexible overtime available, I worked 6 days straight once, granted I then slept for 24 hours after that one! which is a great way to get back into more traditional sleeping pattern, get home from work at 9am and sleep till 9am the next day, I will probably be told thats unhealthy but, meh whatever. Sometimes you can just say well fuk it, and keep the sleep day awake night cycle going, as I did a few days this week.

Putting on headphones and playing something, for 5+ hours with almost no chance of interruption is great, whos gonna call you at 4am? Is that parcel you ordered likely to arrive between 10pm and 5am, absolutely not. Its not healthy, but a great way to get lost in a game, long gaming stints are supposedly dangerous, gaming with the lights off is bad for your eyes, (I do usually end up turning the lights off, it does really strain after an hour or so!) but is, you know every once in a while just spending a long stint playing your favourite First person shooter or a game like skyrim really gonna impact your health that much, I doubt it but I am also not going to try and find evidence! (for or against)

Obvious Downsides to gaming at night are, people around you may be sleeping, you might end up not getting sufficient sleep at all and if you must work/ school whatever the next day your gonna be fatigued so you gotta be sensible, and keep in mind that getting your sleeping pattern back on track is hard its like getting jet lagged essentially, if you have ever travelled somewhere with a big TZ difference it really takes it tole on you, especially if your travelling for a long time (long distance flight with a transfer in between) its kind of like that, you essentially lose a day getting yourself back to a regular sleeping patten, thats a downside to working nights, I work a friday and a saturday night, but essentially lose Sunday as I am too tired to do anything but must try and stay awake to be able to sleep through to Monday morning and spend the week like a "normal" person.

We live in a 24 hour world, dominoes deliver to 5am, alot of supermarkets are 24 hours (thankfully not the one I work in!) you don't have to watch TV live,

If you have a few days off work/ school and no commitments over the coming days, locking out the world and playing and getting lost in some games is one of the best experiences in life. Does that make me sad? probably,

Friday, 6 February 2015

Been playing alot of PS2 this week, will defo be putting a video up tomorrow of some fun I had playing solo as an infiltrator today. Been twitch streaming a bit too if you wanted to see some of that make sure you give gobbybobby a follow on twitch, Still enjoying PS alot, if you play yourself be sure to add me on steam or join KEQ @ forums.keqonline.com

SOE no longer SOE
The news that Sony Online Entertainment is to be bought out and renamed daybreak game company came as a shock this week, the acquisition by an investment management firm raises questions about the future of Planetside and the other SOE titles, are these guys just in it for the money, to get fast returns for the investors, potential ruining the games my making them pay to win to squeeze the cash out of us players? Or could more money be pumped in to make the services better, we will have to wait and see.
Full story:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/02/03/sony-online-entertainment-becomes-daybreak-game-company/

Goo Away
I suck at grey goo, like really bad, most Mp matches I jump into are game over within 10 mins, the strategy seems to be rish your opponent, and I just can't seem to be able to build up enough units to be the first to attack or defend against the inevitable early unit rush, I thought ranked mode would put me against players of a similar ranking, but sadly it does not! I seem to go against players who have been playing for weeks and rush me down within 5 mins of the game starting. I Will have to practise more, watch some strategy videos, but hey maybe the RTS genre is not for me., at least in the MP scene.

EU... fail
During my third episode of my latest EU4 campaign I messed up, messed up big, and I am going to start again, I made a few wrong calls going to war with a country I was not ready to fight got into massive debt, and while I could carry on I want to expand quickly, and have decided to start again will post a video about that in the coming days,

Cards
Still playing hearthstone, almost daily, at least to jump on and get the daily challenges, sometimes I do a quick arena run, managed to get 7 wins earlier in the week, going to always be recording now so If I get an interesting game or really good arena run I will be sure to share it.

Tuesday, 3 February 2015

Been playing a fair bit of EU4 the last few month, doing some stuff on camera now, so check out my new series which I am commiting to actually completing this time, will play through till the end game or until I lose which as I am playing on Iron man mode is quite possible.

Ive also picked up a copy of Grey Goo which is alight enjoying that so far, will say its quite challenging, the AI have been kicking my arse, which is not always a bad thing, challenging games are always welcome. I am going to play through some more of the campaign then jump into some MP which I shall defo record.

Bought a new monitor, One of these. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C144AYK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 which is looking very nice, 144hz too for those extra FPS, however I am likely gonna need to upgrade my CPU to take advantage on the more demanding games like Planetside 2. It only arrived yesterday but so far I am happy with it, my Asus monitor that I bought last year, is being send off for repair, its developed a fault unfortunately.

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Been playing alot of Hearthstone the last few weeks in the gear up to the new expansion, the new cards are really shaking up the meta, which has been stuck in a sort of rut with Hunters and Warlocks dominating, Been having fun with Priest and Druid trying out the new cards. I made a video showcasing some playing around with the cards,

Played around running the Tree of life, (not in this video) which kinda worked at times, if you manage to take control in the late game, but costing 9 mana its was usually a dead card sat in my hand, and too slow to be able to play. If you don't play Hearthstone you have no idea what I am on about,,, Its worth checking out, free, and you can get in on Apple tablets now, with android coming soon... If you start playing message me for my B-Net details.

I am also gonna try and always record the games I am playing in case something cool happens.

Train Fever
I still have the train fever putting 3-4 videos of that out a week, broke even in the game I am playing which is always good, although plan is still to restart on a larger map in 1900 now I can run the game better,

Got loads of overtime at work next week (well from Friday night...) but I hope to be able to get a video out at least every other day.

Friday, 5 December 2014

Anyone who knows me personally will know I am not a practical person, never have been, never will be, so something as simple as putting a computer together leaves me battered and bruised, there was lots of swearing, somethings got broken, a few things where improvised, after I broke/ bent/ or otherwise fucked up, but I am all done both my computers are running, both have been stress tested for hours in prime 95, and I have almost finished installing all the software and games I need.

Little disappointed to find that a copy of Windows 8.1 only entitles you to install it on one machine, previous licenses of Windows I have held have entitled me to install it across 2. Windows 8 on the second computer I installed it on is moaning at me because the keys been used :( let's activate windows! Naa let's not...

While installing all this crap ive been checking out Hearthstone in the arena, they have added the new expansion cards, currently there only in arena, but they do give u 1 free arena run if you have no gold stored up. I managed a few good runs with some crazy combos with the new cards, can't wait to be able to craft them/ get them in packs.

Will hopefully be able start making some videos tomorrow, I gotta work tonight which kinda sucks, but should have a few hours to get some stuff done tomorrow if I don't sleep through the day, I gotta work tomorrow too which also sucks, but gotta pay for all this shit somehow right!